14' laptop for image work, need some help please

Maga

Dear all,

I need to buy a laptop asap and after 2 months of compulsive reading/researching/test-driving, I'm more confused then when I started.
I'd love some opinions please!

Here is some info on what I would like, ideally...

I'm mostly looking into Toshiba, Sony and Lenovo, maybe Samsung or Acer. HP is a big no no due to previous experiences. No Macs please, Win 7 would b great (don't want to learn anything new at this point!). Although I'm not fussy about warranty, a reliable brand is a must.

Mobility: One of my main priorities is getting a screen size 14 or 14'1. I don't care about the battery life.

Budget: Up to 1500,00 if fitting all requirements.

Intended use: first and foremost, I want something that wouldn't be obsolete in 2-3 years (as much as possible).

Internet, MS office (including long word files with pictures in them), home stuff (pic/video etc) but also image work in photoshop and other image programs, editing and using high resolution images.

Colour and screen calibration are not very important, but handling heavy images quickly would be good. No movies editing. Multitasking is very important (ie 30 mozilla tabs opened at once + photoshop + word + excel etc)

Keyboard: ideally a comfortable one. Probably the main reason I didn't buy the Sony Vaio yet is the chiclet keyboard, which is a nightmare for small hands like mine.

Storage: 320GB, 500GB ideal.

Thank you so much for any input!!

All the best

seithon

I'm just wondering, are you sure such a small display would be suitable for heavy image work?

Or would it be more that you'd be taking in say photo's from a digital camera previewing them or so and then taking them off for actual work later?

Maga

Hi Seithon,

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.

Exactly, my main computer would still be the desktop at work, but I'd like to be able to work on the images at home/on the road as much as possible, leaving any final improvements for the desktop.

I had my eyes set on the Sony Vaio EA3S1S, as it has an AMD radeon 6470M graphic card and 500 GB HD, but the processor is a i3 370M 2.4GHz, so I was afraid it wouldn't be fantastic in a couple of years...?

I usually like to get something a bit towards the top end so I don't have to worry about changing laptops for the next 3-4 years.

Thanks again!

tbh it's probably more economic to get 2 different mid-range laptops over the 3 to 4 year period. you'd get something for selling the old one and get the performance of a new laptop each time. there's not a huge amount of 14 inch screened laptops out there - I would look at 13.3 inch screens too - not a lot in the size really.

here's a core i-5 laptop with dedicated graphics that you'd get for €650 delivered.

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Samsung_SF310_1010458.html


seems well reviewed.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2010/10/25/Samsung-SF310/p1

this laptop seems good too if you can find it

http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2010/10/09/Asus-U35Jc/p1

Maga

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the reply!

That's exactly what I was wondering now, whether it would be better to lots of money, say 1400 on a fantastic laptop that (hopefully) would last for a good amount of time, or buy something a bit cheaper for the next couple of years.


How much difference would I actually notice, I wonder, if I got an i5-2410M 2.3 GHz + AMD Radeon 6630M (1GB) _ 6MB RAM instead of a i3-370M 2.4 GHz + AMD Radeon 6470M (512 MB) + 4 MB RAM?

Would the first combination be somewhat obsolete in 2 years time?

Thanks a million for the Samsung, I'm gonna look more into it, it's very tempting too…

snowblind

Check out the new Lenovo Ideapads with Sandy Bridge and stuff. Like the T420 which is 14" with apparently about 10 hours of battery life. Will be released on the 21th I think. No idea what the cost will be but in the states the base configuration will be about 1000$. Upgrade the screen and memory until 8gb and maybe processor to quad i7 and you'll be laughing...

Also the new HP Elitebook seems pretty sweet. Anyways, hold on for a couple of weeks and there will be a bunch of options with Sandy Bridge, meaning more power for the buck.

Maga

Maga wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks a lot for the reply!

That's exactly what I was wondering now, whether it would be better to lots of money, say 1400 on a fantastic laptop that (hopefully) would last for a good amount of time, or buy something a bit cheaper for the next couple of years.


How much difference would I actually notice, I wonder, if I got an i5-2410M 2.3 GHz + AMD Radeon 6630M (1GB) _ 6MB RAM instead of a i3-370M 2.4 GHz + AMD Radeon 6470M (512 MB) + 4 MB RAM?

Would the first combination be somewhat obsolete in 2 years time?

Thanks a million for the Samsung, I'm gonna look more into it, it's very tempting too…

first one is better obv due to i-5 versus i-3, more ram and better graphics card than second one. second one not bad though. neither of them would be obsolete in 2 years in terms of processing images but they won't run the latest and greatest games at high frames per sec (fps) at the highest settings. you didn't mention gaming though so no problem there... samsung is a good brand and a great deal for the price.

Maga

Thank you so much for all your replies and advice! And also for a perspective on the i3!

I called Sony today both in the UK and Dublin, and although the new sony (i5) release is scheduled for "sometime in the end of March/April", the woman in the UK said sometimes it takes till summer to deliver them in Ireland. :eek:

So since in my case I can't live anymore without a laptop (my old one died), I decided to go ahead and get the i3 one in the shop...



I'm not into gaming, so fingers crossed it will be a good choice. The Samsung seems lovely and so does the LeNovo... but since I had a bit of emotional attachment for my old and loyal Vaio, I decided to give it a try again (I know, not a rational decision after all! )


I'll let you guys know how it goes! Thanks a lot again!!!